CHICAGO (CBS) — California attorney Thomas Girardi and two colleagues from his law firm are facing federal charges accusing them of stealing more than $3 million in settlement money from the families of victims of the 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia.

Girardi, the estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne, has been indicted on eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt of court. David Lira, an attorney at Girardi’s law firm, Girardi Keese; and Christopher Kamon, the former head of accounting at Girardi Keese, both also are

This post was originally published on the RLUIPA Defense blog by Evan Seeman, Esq. of Robinson & Cole, and is reposted with permission.

A district court has ruled that the City of Meriden, Connecticut (the City) discriminated against Omar Islamic Center Inc. following the City’s denial of the Islamic Center’s application to move its mosque to another location. The Islamic Center (the Center) outgrew its prior location – a 1,200 square foot space above a pizza restaurant in a neighboring city – and was unable to accommodate the members of the assembly, the number of students interested in its Quran

This post was originally published on the RLUIPA Defense blog by Evan Seeman, Esq. and Madeleine Laffitte, Esq. of Robinson Cole and is reposted with permission.

On December 30, 2022, a district court dismissed a Catholic high school’s RLUIPA challenge, granting summary judgment on all claims in favor of the City of Madison, Wisconsin and various other city officials (the City). As ruled by the court, the City did not discriminate against Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart, Inc. on the basis of religion when it was denied Edgewood’s latest conditional use permit application for outdoor lighting at the

Attorneys for the family of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man fatally beaten by the Memphis police following a traffic stop, expressed disappointment and frustration with the Memphis Police Department over the news that a sixth officer involved in the stop has been relieved of his duty, but has not been fired or charged.

Officer Preston Hemphill, who is white, was relieved of his duties “when the other officers were relieved,” a Memphis police spokesperson told Memphis ABC affiliate WATN. That was

This post was originally published in Municipal Minute by Julie Tappendorf, Esq. of Ancel Glink and is reposted with permission

In Xochi, LLC v. City of Galena, the Illinois Appellate Court found the City immune from liability under the Tort Immunity Act for claims relating to a zoning approval relating to a cannabis dispensary and upheld the dismissal of the case against the City.

Xochi owned a building in the City of Galena which it agreed to lease to Veriflife, who intended to operate a cannabis dispensary. Verilife asked the City to complete a zoning form to certify that local

This post originally appeared in Municipal Minute by Julie Tappendorf, Esq. of Ancel Glink and is reposted with permission.

We have written a number of posts on Municipal Minute discussing the US Supreme Court’s rulings in cases challenging municipal sign codes under the First Amendment. In 2015, we reported on the Court’s decision in Reed v. Gilbert that struck down the Town of Gilbert, Arizona’s temporary sign regulations. The Reed case had afterward been applied by a number of courts across the country in challenges to municipal sign regulations where sign companies and others made an argument that the challenged

Below is a press release from Attorney General Lynn Fitch:

Attorney General Lynn Fitch, along with 19 states, today filed a lawsuit to oppose the Department of Homeland Security’s new program that unlawfully creates a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.

“At a time when our nation is facing unprecedented levels of illegal migration, our government should be focused on securing the border,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “Instead, the Biden Administration unlawfully created a program that rewards and incentivizes hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. This will just add to the mess that the Administration

This post was authored by Amy Lavine, Esq.

The petitioner had requested variances from several different zoning requirements, including the regulations for lot area, lot frontage, front yard setbacks, rear yard setbacks, and minimum and total side yard setbacks, which it needed so that it could build a single faming home. The board of zoning appeals (BZA) denied its request for area variances, however, and the Second Department confirmed the BZA’s denial on appeal. As the court explained, there was sufficient evidence to support the BZA’s determination that there would be an undesirable impact on the character of the neighborhood